


strange bedfellows

by reddy



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Age Difference, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Daddy Issues, Daddy Kink, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Living Together, Rey Kenobi, Roommates, Sexual Tension, Size Difference, Size Kink
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-09
Updated: 2018-12-09
Packaged: 2019-09-14 15:21:14
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16915392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reddy/pseuds/reddy
Summary: Leia compels her son to take in the young Rey Kenobi after her father dies. It is a family duty after all. But their cohabitation turns into a strange, intoxicating game.





	strange bedfellows

**Author's Note:**

> if you've read my other reylo stuff, you'll know to expect some creepy, uncomfortable content ahead, although i don't think there's going to be anything too disturbing...not really? we'll see. this is mostly about daddy issues and power dynamics which ultimately help them get past some trauma. anyway, thank you for checking it out!

_We wait for something to grow and then we eat it._

     - shirley jackson 

 

***

His mother liked to present him with a fait accompli. It was one of her joys in life to render it impossible to deny her. He tried saying no in earnest, but she always overpowered him with her even more earnest arguments.

“You were named after her late father, Ben. You owe him your name.”

Ben Solo leaned his head back and stared at the ceiling. He counted the cracks, one by one. Times like these, he quite hated the Biblical farm-boy name he’d been cursed with, no matter the legacy. He preferred his writer’s nom de plume. Kylo Ren sold books. Ben Solo only sold chicken peas at the market.

“She’s like family. Ben would have wanted us to take care of her.”

Yes, all right, but what did _he_ have to do with it? Why couldn’t she stay with Leia? Why was he supposed to welcome a nineteen year-old orphan in his home? Wouldn’t she be better off with the older woman in New Alderaan?

No, Leia argued, no, Rey needed someone younger to guide her, she needed people her age. She’d been cooped up with old people for too long.  

“I’m ten years older than her.”

“Well, that’s nothing. You two will be like siblings, I’m counting on it. Besides, I’ve been under a bad spell recently. Might as well be cancer. Have to draw up a will soon. She can’t come here to live with a corpse.”

Ben rolled his eyes. “ _Mother_. You’re too fond of dramatics.”

“Look who’s talking,” she drawled.

Ben smiled a sad smile. Her spirit had remained iron-clad yet light all throughout her not so happy life. She should’ve been comforted in old age by her husband, his father. But no one knew where Han Solo was prowling these days. He only ever sent the occasional postcard.

Ben tried not to summon any hatred for the man and failed, as usual.

“You’ll take her in, won’t you?” Leia asked again, already knowing his answer.

Ben Solo heaved a submissive sigh.

 

 

 _Jesus Christ_ , was his first thought when his eyes landed on the skinny teenager on his doorstep. She was supposed to be an adult, legally, but she looked much younger – fifteen at the most. Underfed, freckled, tanned and muscly. She seemed to have come out of a production of Peter Pan where she was playing one of the Lost Boys.

Rey Kenobi offered her arm in a boyish handshake. Her hair was done up in childish braids. She barely reached his shoulder. In fact, her smallness was almost Lilliputian.

Ben felt immensely old all of a sudden. _Shit_ , this would be even more awkward than he had anticipated.

“I’m Rey. Thank you for having me. I promise I won’t be much bother.”

He shook her dry, coltish hand. “It’s fine, you’re not a bother.”

His felt a thickness in his throat, like he’d not swallowed his food properly. He had the distinct and ominous feeling that he was going to have to play father figure to this wild creature. From what Leia had told him, she had lived all her life in the desert because Ben Kenobi preferred sand and hardship to society and comfort. She was like one of those feral children they showed in documentaries emerging from sunken caves.

 Rey deposited her ratty backup in the hallway and wiped the sweat from her brow. She was wearing tattered jeans and a hoodie. He felt overdressed in his crisp shirt and black trousers, but he was meeting his publisher later in the afternoon and he abhorred casual wear as a principle. Slovenly clothes reminded him too much of his father perhaps. Or perhaps it had nothing to do with Freud and this was just a sartorial preference.  Leia used to tell him he took after his grandmother in that regard. In any case, the girl made him feel self-conscious.

“Let me show you around,” he said for something to do.

Rey followed him obediently, her eyes darting curiously around the spacious warehouse apartment. He liked to keep things sparse. He preferred an industrial but elegant décor. The walls were stripped, showing the brick flesh underneath. The floorboards were sanded. There was an Art Nouveau feel in the rigid aluminum lamps and unwieldy high-backed chairs that populated the rooms.

He imagined it was a wild departure from a shack in the desert.

Rey’s face told him as much.

“This is your room,” he said, pushing open a sliding door. Initially, the room had served as a personal library. He had moved all of his books into his study, which was already overflowing with books. But needs must. He had tried to make the room more personable. He had bought a Persian rug, thrown in a colorful vase too. It was empty, but maybe she’d fill it with flowers. He realized these were old man choices. He should’ve bought fairy lights and catchy posters.

But Rey seemed very pleased with her room. She especially appreciated the small bed next to the window. She sat down on the edge and ran her palm reverently over the sheets.

“This is lovely, thank you.”

Ben frowned. Were beds a novelty for her? He was disturbed by her pleasure.

“We’re going to have to share a bathroom, but I think we’ll manage to stay out of each other’s way.”

He had not meant that to sound cold, but Rey seemed to instinctively stiffen. “You won’t know I’m there, I promise,” she said with a gravity that was almost ridiculous.   

“I know, I didn’t mean – I’m sure it will be fine.”

Gods, he’d be happy to be removed from her presence. But he couldn’t leave for his meeting yet.

“Are you hungry?” he asked.

Rey blinked up at him. He noticed her eyes held no guile. Whatever she felt or wanted was clearly written there. And Jesus, she looked famished. “Yes.”

 

 

She ate like a lonely house wife with a drinking problem. She did not pause to breathe, or even to look down at the food. She gorged on it, gobbled it up like the last supper. She wiped the plate clean and licked her fingers too. Her cheeks looked almost mechanical as she chewed. Her whole face became inhuman.

If asked later, she wouldn’t even remember what she ate.

Ben watched her from his position by the kitchen sink. He was appalled by her appetite. Disturbed by its implications. What sort of life had she led? From what he’d grasped from Leia, Ben Kenobi had not even known he had a daughter until she was already almost grown and by that point, she had been living in Jakku for too long for him to displace her. He had spent his last years there, trying to recover his lost family, trying to make up for lost time.

Fathers abandoning children without wanting to – he was far too familiar with that refrain.

Rey stuffed more bread into her mouth.

He drummed his fingers against the Formica. He had this sudden vision of her rummaging through his fridge, eating everything with monstrous deliberation, sliding each item from the rack straight into her small, succubus mouth. She wouldn’t be sated. He’d come home and even the furniture would be gone.

That was another thing, and he felt ashamed for thinking it, but what if he returned home and found it stripped of its valuables?

 _You’re a piece of shit_ , he thought with compunction. _She’s a kid. And she hasn’t had a good life._  

Rey stared at him from the corner of her eye.

“It’s okay if you have to go. I can handle myself.”

Ben flinched. Could she be one of those precocious youths who read minds too?

He checked his wrist watch emphatically. “I do have to run some errands, but I can stay awhile longer if you –”

“Please, I don’t want to upset your schedule. I’ll unpack and settle in, it’s no problem.” Her voice was measured, almost rehearsed.  She sounded formal and slightly younger for it.

He nodded, reluctant but also relieved.

“I’ll leave you to it then.”

Rey got up, picked up her plate and marched to the sink. He moved aside. He watched her scrub it judiciously.

“There’s a cleaning woman who comes every Wednesday,” he said, taking a few steps towards the hallway.

“Oh. I can take over cooking and cleaning, if you like,” she said matter-of-factly, not even looking at him.

“Absolutely not. You’re not here for that.”

 _What am I here for?_ they both seemed to wonder.

“I’m only offering. I like keeping busy,” she muttered, closing the tap.

“We’ll find things to keep you busy,” he said, realizing it was a rather empty, stupid thing to say. He wished he could find the right words to talk to her.

Rey nodded. “Thanks.”

“No need to thank me yet,” he muttered, picking up his jacket from a chair. How on Earth would he manage to live with her?

He left the apartment in a hurry not even sparing her a glance. Like a coward. He craved fresh air. He wanted to call his mother and complain.

_What am I supposed to do with her?_

 

Rey lay down on the bed. She curled up in a fetal position. She was here now and there was no scorching sun, no rough sands. It was better and worse. There were comforts here, but there was also loneliness. Her father had always referred to Ben as a kind of nephew, but the man who had welcomed her into his home was a giant stranger. His size was at odds with his mannerisms, his clothes. His face was brutish and wide, but also poised and princely. He intimidated her a little, not just because he could squash her like a bug, but because he clearly did not want her here.

But he _had_ made an effort. And she would make the most of it. She had survived in the desert. She would survive this too.


End file.
